The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-12-25
Printed BY spsesq, Arrqngenen.-copwioAsea. 1871
STORY BY ALBION w. ToURGEE
AUTHOR OF "a FOOLS ERRAND." Hot PLOUGH
SHARES, ETC.

We were coming eastward on the Atchison
Topeka & Sante Fe. the line peerless among
american railroad monopolies in the character
Of its service and evident care for the comforr
of its passengers. have sometimes wondered
that other corporations, disturbed by strikes
and given to Jealous black-listing of discharged
employees, do not take time to inquire into the
reason why this great New England system
with its thousands of miles of track spread like
network of steel over the great wheat fields
OF the southwest, manages to command such
loyal and devoted service from the magnificent
body of men who compose its army of servitors.
The secret is not hard to find to one who will
naingle with its employees. He soon learns that
these, from brakemen up to the superintendent
and including the clerks of the chief officials
are treated like men and required to show them
selves worthy of such treatment by displaying
the same spirit towards the patrons of the road.
Well paid well provided, treated with gentle
manly consideration. they have developed an
esprit de corps which of itself tends to eliminate
unworthy elements and has produced body of
subordinate officials unequaled by any which
has CHANGED to fall under my observation.
have made such things a study, and there is
hardly road in the United States upon which
have not had abundant opportunity for pursuing
such investigation. Good wages. convenient
runs. neat lodging houses. hospitals for the
sick and consideration for the disabled, with
rigid discipline and courteous example are at
at the bottom of this notable result. Courtesy
and faithfulness is the rule of the read and
should be engraved its corporate seal. A
bulldozing conductor, an insolent brakeman or
a sullen engineer I never yet saw upon the
track. 1t is characterized by the anxious care
fulness of the Boston business man, who will
stop in the busiest hour of the day to mark out
the strange wayfarers course along her crooked
streets, modified and broadened by the hearth
ness and 1nsouciance of the great West. 1t is
said to be grasping and relentless in the asser-
ton of power. keen to take advantage of oppor-
tunity and firm believer in the underlying
dogma of the railway monopolist, that the tariff
of rates should be governed by consideration of
how much the shippers business will stand; but
these common infirmities, while its virtues
enough to deserve grateful remem-
brance from those whose comfort they have en-
HANGED / did not mean to write this, but some
how the time and place where I heard it have
become an essential part of the curious tale
set out to relate.
We were speeding eastward as 1 said, across
the plains. We had watched the sun drop down
behind the mountains, lighting with his farewell
glow the snowy crests long after the plains were
covered with grey shadows. Then the stars
came out and the feeling of isolation which the
dull, unbroken distance and the great, unclouded
vault closing evenly down on every side pro-
duces, crept over us and we drew away from the
windows to escape its curious irksomeness. 1t
was Christmas Eve, and a little company,
strangers to each other few hours before, but
drawn together by that very sense of isolation
which the desert brings. gathered in the smok-
ing saloon. With the freedom which character
ICES the great West, we were soon acquainted
and the conversation naturally turned upon the
season and the personal experience of the
various individuals connected with the Christ
mas time. There were representatives of al
most every part of the country. together with
some whose memories held quaint pictures of
the season of good will in other lands. There
were tales of homes, and friends and quaint adj
venture. There were few silences, for each ones
story seemed to waken echo in every other
mind, and that who CHANGED first to begin
went on with episode of the universal
epic.
I must confess that the stories were not many
of them of the character of those which have
become known in literature as Christmas
Stories do not remember now that there
were many acts of notable benevolence re-
counted, but there many quaint incidents
and some serious adventures. Curiously enough,
there was boasting. One told how he had
gone long way. when awkward lad, to carry
n Christmas present to his boy love. She was
the daughter of rich parents and his heart beat
furiously at the thought of his presumption, but
he trudged on only to find the windows of her |
fathers house all aglow and gay company |
gathered within When he mustered courage |!
to ring the bell and ask for her he was hidden |
TO wait in the hall, where she came TO him in |
the dazzling radiance of her party attire, and |
when he stated his errand stood smiling upon |
him, very angel as he thought. while he sought |
in every pocket for the gift which was the re- /
suit of months of self-denial 1t was gone He |
had lost it on the way, but dared not confess |
the fact. After vain searching he looked at her |
in blank despair. only to see that she OWNED |
his misfortune and pitied his distress.
Never mind she said, putting her little
eloved hand his rough sleeve and glancing
quickly toward the closed door, never mind |
some other time will do"
She was leaning toward him; her rosy lips
were in easy reach; he. thought there was no
time like the present. and kissed them twice be-
fore they could be withdrawn. His audacity
had its reward, and when he drew from his
pocket the likeness of beautiful woman and
passed it round with the simple Words MY
wife, gentlemen" none of us wondered that
Christmas Eve brought back to him the memory
IF the gift he lost and the treasure he found
that night.
One of the party had been lost in a storm-an |
Australian blizzard on a Christmas Eve, and
blinded with the wind and numb with cold had
staggered on, thinking he heard the bells of his
English home pealing the Christmas chimes, to
ind himself when the morning came. in a sheep
fold, saved by the warmth of the innocent
creatures who had crowded about him to shelter
themselves.
There were some curious stories of the super
natural, but the one that impressed me most
was told by quiet commonplace looking man
who had been, up TO the present time, silent
listener. 1t getting late. and the porter
lad more than once intinated that the rules of
,he Pullman company required him to put